We’ve written about your wife’s indicators of interest before. A wife usually expresses her interest in sex more subtly than her husband, so don’t miss the cues!

“First the woman smiles at her admirer and lifts her eyebrows in a swift, jerky motion as she opens her eyes wide to gaze at him. Then she drops her eyelids, tilts her head down and to the side, and looks away. Frequently she also covers her face with her hands, giggling nervously as she retreats behind her palms.”

In a 2013 study from researchers at the University of New South Wales, researchers had 177 heterosexual men and 351 heterosexual women look at images of 10 men in one of four conditions: clean-shaven, light stubble, heavy stubble, or full beard. Participants rated the men pictured on several traits, including attractiveness.

That women said the most attractive beard length was heavy stubble.

“Facial hair correlates not only with maturity and masculinity, but also with dominance and aggression,” write authors Barnaby J. Dixson and Robert C. Brooks.

“An intermediate level of beardedness is most attractive,” they add.

Build some muscle. Here the phrase “short-term relationships” basically means that the woman wants to bang.

In a 2007 study from University of California, Los Angeles, 286 women looked at pictures of shirtless men and indicated which ones seemed like they would make the best long- and short-term partners.

Results showed that women were more likely to want short-term relationships with the guys who had big muscles.

Wear strong colors, like red.

A 2010 cross-cultural study — with participants from China, England, Germany, and the US — found that women are most attracted to men wearing red.

In one experiment from the study, 55 female undergrads looked at a color photo of a man in either a red or green shirt, and then rated the man’s attractiveness.

Sure enough, the man was rated significantly more attractive when he was wearing a red shirt. The results were similar when researchers compared the red shirt to other color shirts as well.

Interestingly, participants generally weren’t aware that the man’s clothing color was influencing their perceptions of his attractiveness.

Be funny.

Multiple studies indicate that women are more attracted to men who can make them laugh. Interestingly though, men generally aren’t more attracted to women who can make them laugh.

Take “hunter-gatherer” risks.

A 2014 study led by researchers at the University of Alaska at Anchorage found that women are attracted to men who take what the researchers call “hunter-gatherer risks.”

More than 230 undergrads filled out questionnaires about how attractive they would find a partner who engaged in certain risky behaviors, as opposed to a partner who engaged in low- or no-risk behaviors.

Hunter-gatherer risks included mountain biking, deep-sea scuba diving, and extreme rollerblading. “Modern” risks included plagiarizing an academic paper, casually handling chemicals in a lab, and not updating the virus-protection software on your computer.

Low- and no-risk behaviors included biking along paved paths and carefully handling chemicals in a chemistry-lab class.

Results showed that women said they would be more attracted to men who engaged in hunter-gatherer risks — the kinds that were similar to risks faced by ancestral humans. Women said they would be less attracted to men who engaged in modern risks, which might seem just plain dumb.

In one study, eight men ate a slice of bread with cheese and 12 grams of fresh garlic; another eight ate bread and cheese without any garlic. For the next 12 hours, the men wore cotton pads under their armpits and were instructed not to use any deodorants or fragrances.

The following day, all the men returned to the lab, where 40 women sniffed the pads and rated the odor on pleasantness, attractiveness, masculinity, and intensity. Results showed that the garlic group was rated more pleasant and attractive and less masculine and intense.

And finally, looking proud is better than looking happy.

In one experiment included in the study, researchers had nearly 900 North American adults look at photos of opposite-sex individuals online.

The researchers were specifically comparing people’s perceptions of expressions of pride, happiness, shame, and neutrality (other people had already identified the emotion behind the expression in the photo). For women evaluating men, the most appealing expression was pride, and the least appealing was happiness.

It’s important to note that the features and behaviors listed above generally do not make a woman more attractive to a man. We’re very different creatures.

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6 comments

Fascinating post. I think the strongest reasons mention is the hunter-gatherer and the color red. I go out of my way now to wear red when I can in order to elicit attraction from my wife. The hunter-gatherer persona is powerful because women love men who take on challenges bigger than themselves. Don’t believe me? Think about David when he killed Goliath. The Bible says the women of Israel came out to celebrate him (1 Samuel 18:6). Notice the women came out – no men!Tristan Vali recently posted…Older Men, Here Is The Missing Link That Will Make You LOVE Cardio…

I know two more. One – be able to fix stuff. If you can fix or replace a dishwasher instead of calling a plumber, women find that sexy. I think it’s part of that hinter-gatherer instinct. Two – have a full head of hair. You’ll need a lot of help from genes on this one but I’m 56 with a naturally full head of hair and no gray. Women like hair better than baldness. Sorry bald guys but they just do.

Sorry to disagree, not all of us women fit that category. Yes my husband is bald now (55), but he’s been shaving his head since before it “was a thing,” (30 yo) Perhaps he and I are rightly suited because most red pill advice tells men that women with shorter hair are not submissive women but my Man prefers my short (pixie style) hair. And even comments when it gets too long for his liking. In the end, I think it depends largely on the demographics of those stats that say women prefer “bald.” Both our daughters (21 and 22 yo) find their father extremely handsome; especially (their words, not mine) because of the baldness and the grey beard.

My Husband is a super driven choleric Alpha, and if he died and I needed to husband hunt, I wouldn’t be more or less attracted to either “hair” or not; I’d be looking for the size of his balls (metaphorically) and what he’s conquered in life so far.

I don’t know about beards. It doesn’t take much for them to cross the line into simply looking unkempt rather than hot. My husband never goes past the heavy stubble look but is mostly clean shaven. I might be old fashioned but being clean shaven generally impresses me as someone who takes care with his appearance.

If men have grey in their beards before the hair on their head goes grey, they can be tremendously aging.
Perhaps the man wearing red is more mindful about his appearance in general.

Re risk taking..it really depends. Men who ride ATVs or motorcycles with or without a helmet? No thank you. Locally we have had deaths of two young men related to not wearing helmets.